Sympathy for the Devil
by Araceli L
Summary: When Link is abruptly introduced to his own shadow, he cannot defeat the question it forces him to examine: are they both Link? Can Light only exist with Dark? Or will Dark win, conquering Light forever? Not yaoi.


A/N: **Yes, the title is a Stones song, but it honestly has nothing to do with that. It'll make sense. Hope you enjoy. :)**

_**Sympathy For The Devil**_

I urged Epona onward as we galloped across the plain, and my mind was reeling.

Perhaps at the start of this morning, I never would have suspected what I was to encounter. In truth, I wasn't even supposed to be here right now – it wasn't my duty. I was not _allowed_, so to speak, to be frolicking about on Hyrule field, but I simply could not bear the swish of waves any longer – I needed to feel the moonlight, the comfort of a breath of fresh air – not air overflowing with moisture and fish. Besides, after today's encounter, I couldn't take another night in the Water Temple, no matter what sage I needed to free.

Couldn't the sages wait? Distantly I wondered who the Water Sage would be – my best friend, believe it or not, had become the Forest Sage...and now she was lost to me forever. I didn't know many water-dwelling people, except the Zora, and no one important among them except Ruto. I chortled faintly, remembering my hasty lie to her when I had been a child. Hopefully, by now, she'd forgotten about me.

I slowed Epona by a gentle pull on the reigns, and she whinnied softly. I tickled her ear, and it flicked as she snorted. Grinning quietly, I hopped down from the saddle, but my smile vanished as quickly as seven years had.

Glancing around suspiciously, I settled myself underneath a great oak, so one side was facing the tree, and I leaned against the laying Epona, creating an angle I was comfortable in. As I rested my weary head against my mare's white mane, a sudden creak split through the night.

I shot up, my fingers closing around the faithful hilt of my sword. Chills splashed down my spine as I looked everywhere, but saw nothing. Perhaps I was merely paranoid...Perhaps not.

Narrowing my blue eyes, I lay down again, the earthy scent much more consoling than the salty air at the Lake had been.

Lake Hylia, where the Water Temple lay, where I could bear it no longer –

I opened my eyes; I had not realized I'd closed them.

Yet as my eyes took in the landscape...I was not where I had once been.

Everything was blank, clear, _empty..._There was nothing around me, save for a tilted object far off into the white, motionless distance. I couldn't make out what it was, as I took a few steps forward, but I didn't concentrate on that as my boots dampened. I glanced down, only to see I was standing in shallow water. The ground below the mirror was exactly the same as the space and the sky above me: white and empty.

I couldn't judge the perimeter, but I felt as though the walls were closing in on me..._what walls? _There was nothing here. Yet I knew this place.

"I've been waiting for you, Link."

I ripped out the Master Sword, twisting as fast as lightning.

There, in front of me, his grinning fangs and gleaming red eyes shooting an unimpressed look at my sword an inch away from his pure-black face, was my nightmare.

I stood speechless, my breath caught and my eyes wide; my blue eyes, so different from his glinting, evil, blank scarlet slashes in his head.

This was what I had been dreading coming to terms with; this is what I had encountered earlier in the Water Temple. It was suffice to say that he had horrified me, from his mirroring combat style to his stark similarity to me. Yet he was so different; sadistic smirk, taunting trickery.

He slowly stepped toward me, after putting a black-fingered hand on the Master Sword and pushing it down effortlessly, as if I were threatening him with a wooden stick.

His shady lips were pursed in a sneer, and then he spoke. "It's nice to see you again. I'll admit, I let you win earlier. Otherwise, I never would have gotten this lovely chance to speak with you."

I gulped, and he began to walk around me; I still hadn't lowered my sword.

"Mentioning earlier...your fighting skills are impressive, Link. Of course, they are my fighting skills, too..." he chuckled, disappearing behind me; I couldn't seem to make my limbs work, no matter how much my brain instructed them, desperately, to either strike at him or flee. Yet another part of it knew I couldn't do either.

"Actually, there's a reason I summoned you here again...my little home...My sweet _prision_." He snarled the word into my ear, his hiss seething with rage; abruptly it disappeared and he was in front of me again.

An eerie look was upon his shadowy face as he assessed me. "Do you know why, Link?"

That little spark of insubordination, a feeling I knew well, blew into a fire. It was that grain of rebellion that always got me into troubles such as this, but I only answered, "Know what, specter?"

He seemed to revel in the name I gave him, and he arched a dark eyebrow. "You tell me."

I grimaced, but stared directly into those leering eyes. He had no actual eye – where a human's eyeball would be, he had blank, empty, blood-red slates. I told him, "I don't know why you called me here. I don't know what more you could want from me – I don't know who or what trapped you here, but I reckon you deserved it."

The shade burst into laughter, and the sound was quite more frightening than his subtle threat. It rang of insanity and madness, or anger and vengeance; I returned to truly afraid.

He advanced on me, his left-hand fingering the hilt of his own sword. His mirthless laughter abruptly ended. "I deserve none of this, ignorant Light! _You _have encaged me here!"

I stared at him, tensing my sword arm; it had gone slack at my side. "I've never seen you before! How could I have caused this?"

Suddenly he was very close to me; I felt my heart hammer in my chest. He bared his fangs, the only white part about him. "Never seen me?" He broke off to laugh anew, nailing fear into my bounding heart. "Link..._I am you_."

I barely had a fraction of a second to whip out my sword and block myself from his flying, shadowy replica of the Master Sword.

We exchanged blows at incredible speeds, and I was thrown back to earlier, when I'd been harrowingly amazed to find someone with as much swordplay skills as myself. But now he struck with vengence, with a passion, and I could hardly keep up with his blurring, obsidian blade. His eyes left streaks in my vision as we spun and spiraled to land a blow, and unexpectedly he threw up his dark hand; I nearly slashed it, but instead I warily held my sword tilted in the air.

He grinned.

"You see what I mean?" he asked, as he slowly lowered his sword. I didn't lower mine. "You are me. I am you. We are one."

"What do you mean?" I muttered, keeping my eyes locked on his left hand.

He moved a bit closer to me, and I retaliated by moving a step backwards. He seemed to sigh, "I'm your dark side. _I _am Dark Link."

I scrutinized him. I did not believe him. At least, that's what I told myself...there was no possibility that he was me. I was not evil.

He came a step closer; I was too frozen in disbelief to back away. "We are too much alike, Link. I am your shadow. We share many similarities; I know you are thinking our appearances, but look deeper, my friend. We—"

_Friend. _That was when I broke. "Away from me, demon!" I cried, but I still couldn't move. I was powerless to this devil, to my own shadow...No! He was _not _me!

His expression was incomprehensible. "I am you. You cannot deny it. Look inside yourself, Link. What do you find? I am there..."

I was horrified, I was in denial. He was not me. He could not be.

Now he smiled at my widening, fathoming eyes. "Oh yes, I am...I've always been there. I've been lurking in your shadow, hidden by your 'great' deeds...no one ever knew that was a dark side to their 'beloved' and righteous hero..."

I stared up into his eyes.

"You know I don't speak lies. Why would I lie to myself?"

I felt a sinking sensation in my stomach, but I began to believe. I couldn't lie to myself.

"Of course," he said, slithering to my side, "I am the dark side of you. It's ironic, really; I never existed until you became a hero...Back when you were young, I was no where to be found. Perhaps whenever you stole a cookie from the cookie jar...but I was virtually non-existent. It was an awful, sub-existence, and I _hate _you for it. Yet I must thank you."

None of this made any sense. How had becoming a _hero _brought out the worst in me?

"You are a hero now. You are wondering how this created me, yes? Allow me to explain." He emerged into my eyesight, his crimson eyes glowing and illuminant. "You made the decision to become better, to be a better person, to work for _the greater good_, is that not correct? But think about this, Link: light could not exist if it were not for dark. Do you understand me?"

I growled, "I will never understand you. You are not me." Unfortunately, I didn't believe this myself.

He merely shrugged this off with a slight snicker. "But do you comprehend what I am telling you? Opposites are there for a reason, Hero. Something cannot exist without the other. For light there is dark, for soft there is hard, for strong there is weak. Do you understand this?"

I desperately wanted to attack him, to banish him to wherever he came from, even if that place was inside of me. But curiosity was eating me away, and its need was far greater than my want to hurt him. I nodded.

"And, for each thing to have come into existence, they need to gain a solid understanding of the other," he said, raising his eyebrows and tilting his head down a bit, as if asking, 'do you understand this?'.

It was dawning on me now, and as much as it horrified me, it made sense.

"To become a hero of your magnitude, one must know how to be a hero. And to be a hero, one must make things better. And for one to make things better, one must know _what_ to fix. Do you fathom this _now_?"

My mind was conflicting and dazed, but I managed, "So you are saying that...to become a hero, I had to learn of things that are dark, of hatred, of fear, of suffering, agony, and things that Light basically strives to banish, and when I uncovered these things, they were stored inside of me, and when that happened...they collected and transformed...into _you_?"

His fangs, cruelly pointed, were showcased as he grinned sardonically. "You're a quick learner, aren't you?"

I finally gave up on all the things swirling about and fogging up my thoughts. "Then what are you doing _here,_ Dark?" I spit.

My shadow abruptly exploded, and bits of Dark began whirling about in the sudden currents in the water below my feet.

"I am here, Link...because Dark and Light must come to terms..."

His voice, cold yet content, echoed around me as if I were in a coffin instead of nowhere.

"We haven't already?" My tone sounded despairing, so I endeavored to strengthen it as I added, "Light always triumphs over Dark."

His chuckle rang in my ears, far too close, far too sinister. "Really?"

"Yes!" I bellowed, but I heard my voice tremble.

"How is that possible, Link..." Suddenly his sound was earthly again, and I spun around, to see him in the distance, sitting serenely on the tip of the tilted object, which appeared sunk into the water, yet the puddle didn't even reach my toe. His ghostly silhouette was a strange Dark blot in the startling, blinding whiteness of the emptiness.

His snake-like voice wormed into my ears, yet he was so far away. "How can you triumph over yourself...isn't that contradictory?"

"You are not ME!" I screamed, but my words were lost in the devouring silence of the chamber. It was like demanding an answer from the sky.

"Oh, Link, but I am. I am. Deny it as much as you'd like, but you are only hurting yourself...or, your _version _of yourself...Oh yes, I am as thoroughly you as you are yourself. And you're not likely to forget me soon. Try not to, anyway..."

I attempted to move toward him, but he warped away; it did not matter, I couldn't have reached him, and I knew that. But defiance and fury was building up inside of me.

"Link, Link, Link. I thought you were a quick learner." I couldn't find him, but his voice was still itching, disturbingly tickling my ear. "Don't you understand? The angrier you get, the more fearful you become, the more powerful I grow."

I felt my breath become short. Then I grew suspicious. "Why are you telling me your weakness?"

I could hear the sneer in his voice. "Because you would have found out anyway."

"Why not spare yourself some time," I hissed, "before I banish you forever?"

"Because I know what makes you tick. I am you, after all."

Abruptly all the water below me turned black; whorls of red streamed through it, and I looked around from the source, but I could find none. They were perturbingly dark, and mixed lavishingly, lovingly with the inky substance.

I glanced around for his ebony hair, but then I was petrified as I realized that everything I glimpsed in the raven water was his charcoal colored face, grinning that truculent smile. I couldn't move, and a silent scream formed on my lips.

"I am you, Link...and Dark Link is always inside of you, no matter what. _I am you._"

I jerked up, my scream of terror splitting the starless night in two. Thrashing about, I gripped my blade desperately, my knuckles white; I felt myself, clutching my tunic and hair, feeling my face, darting forward to a nearby puddle of rainwater. It horribly recalled what I'd just been through, but I forced myself to stare into it, panting heavily, yet I was almost scared to look.

My eyes were my own, terrorized but clear and blue; my hair was golden like Light, not ebony like Dark; my face was pale and frightened, but it was not melanoid.

I sat back, pulling my knees to my chest and rocking myself slowly.

_I am Link. I am not Dark Link. I am Link. I am not Dark Link._

Unfortunately, I could not pretend he was fake, or be relieved that he was a figment of my imagination. Dark Link was very real, and I had a scar on my temple from our first meeting to prove that. Except he had not spoken then.

Regrettably and dismally, what he said was also true. I could not deny the logic of his words, no matter how much I wished it; I could not act as if I hadn't caused this. I had created Dark Link. I couldn't deny any of what he said; I could not deny him; I could not deny he was me...

I glanced into the mirror again, just to reassure myself.

And Dark Link's pupiless, slate-blank, wicked, sadistic, and bloody eyes were gazing up at me. That grin was back on his onyx mouth, and his face was smug, yet it also was mine: frozen in fear.

It was also my face. Because it _was _my face...I _was _Dark Link.

And slowly...our mouth curled upward.

A/N: **Yyup, this is what I get for looking up Link/Dark Link for about an hour and a half on DevianArt. I can't believe how much Dark LinkxLink I saw. Guys...Dark Link is a shadow...he's not actually a human...besides, he's also Link...so he'd be in love with himself...narcissistic much? but anyway. Whoop. I couldn't resist. Dark Link is so freakin sexy! *cough* sorry. Fangirl side. But really, Shadow Link is really B.A. Plus, he's never really explained. Sure, we know he's Link's bad side, but how does Link react to that? It's honestly terrifying if you think about it. ****Where did he come from? Why? I hope my reasoning made sense. Please excuse any spelling/grammar mistakes. I still can't get this stupid spellcheck to work. **

**Well, let me know what you thought! I was also trying to use my dialogue, because I've been lacking on it. In the end, I hope you enjoyed, and thanks for reading! **

**Now, I have a picture that I found that I think describes this perfectly. It is NOT mine whatsoever, and I did write this before finding that picture, but all the rights are to him/her. I OWN NOTHING! Take out the spaces: http : / / browse. deviantart . com / ?qh=& section =&q=dark + zelda# / d25u1uw . Beautiful piece of work. If anyone reads this that has a Deviantart, pleawe ask if it's alright that I linked their picture, and compliment them on it! :D**

**~ClumsyHeart17**


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